Highlights

  • The First Descendant, a free-to-play looter shooter, faced a bug affecting its microtransaction system, causing issues with premium currency and Twitch drops.
  • Developers apologized and promised compensation while exploring alternative delivery methods to mitigate server congestion.
  • Despite the bug, the game has attracted over 200,000 concurrent users and offers 14 playable Descendants and a vast world to explore.

Mere hours after The First Descendant's global debut, developers revealed plans to compensate players for a prevalent bug with the game's microtransaction system. Nexon Games' recently released free-to-play live-service title has garnered quite a bit of attention in the weeks leading up to its launch. But while The First Descendant's launch has proven to be a phenomenal success with over 200,000 concurrent users at the time of writing, it was not completely free of any major issues.

For context, The First Descendant is a free-to-play online looter shooter with a focus on PvE content. The game is set on the planet of Igris, where humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by the invasion of a highly advanced alien civilization, the Vulgus. Players take on the role of Descendants, powerful characters with varying special abilities tasked to combat the Vulgus. While users can take on most missions solo, The First Descendant heavily emphasizes player cooperation and adaptability, leading to comparisons with several other popular looter shooter franchises. The similarities were likely even intentional, as producer Lee Beom-Jun previously confirmed their vision for The First Descendant was influenced by Warframe and Destiny 2.

Promotional screenshot of Lepic fighting enemies in The First Descendant
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Unfortunately, some of the excitement surrounding its release was somewhat dampened when players realized a widespread bug with the monetization system was interfering with the delivery of both premium currency and Twitch drops to their The First Descendant accounts. In response, developers quickly posted an announcement to the official The First Descendant website, apologizing for the delay to the players' items and assuring affected users they would be compensated for the bug.

The First Descendant Devs Are Looking Into Fixes

At the time of writing, the studio has yet to share a solution or a possible timeline for a hotfix to The First Descendants' monetization model. However, the post also stated that developers were experimenting with faster alternative delivery methods to mitigate the effects of the game's congested servers. In the meantime, players who bought currency can still check their store inbox or mailbox if they need to make sure their items have been safely registered to their account.

We sincerely apologize once again for the inconvenience caused by the issues that occurred during the opening day. As a token of our apology, we prepared a compensation!

While the monetization system might be having issues, The First Descendant still has plenty to offer for newcomers who are looking for a live-service looter shooter to sink their teeth into. With 14 playable Descendants and a wide-open world to explore, fans of the genre will have plenty of gear to grind and content to unlock.